United replaces 38 lbs of pilot p-books with 1.5 lbs of e-books

[RockdaMan]

This is cool. But it doesn't tell us whether they are ePub or Mobi.

United Continental Holdings said today that it will convert to "paperless flight decks" for pilots.

United and Continental pilots will all get iPads. And gone will be paper flight manuals and paper aeronautical navigational charts.

Distributon of 11,000 iPads started this month and should be finished by the end of the year.
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Each iPad will replace about 38 pounds of paper operating manuals, navigation charts, reference books, flight checklists, logbooks and weather information that are typically in a pilot's flight bag.

http://www.chron.com/business/articl...he-2137183.php

[ucfgrad93]

I hope they don't run out of battery power at a critical time.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I hope they don't run out of battery power at a critical time.

The airplanes produce electricity, sorta like your car does. Plus the battery life is pretty good.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

The airplanes produce electricity, sorta like your car does. Plus the battery life is pretty good.

I know, just kidding. I hope they don't spend time playing Angry Birds instead of flying the plane.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

This is cool. But it doesn't tell us whether they are ePub or Mobi.

Neither. They're probably PDF.

[rcuadro]

I think it is going to be a pain in the ass to find a specific page in an emergency. There is something to be said about a book and post it notes... not to mention the ability to have multiple books open at the same time...

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

I think it is going to be a pain in the ass to find a specific page in an emergency. There is something to be said about a book and post it notes... not to mention the ability to have multiple books open at the same time...

That depends on what app you're using to view/read the files. I think GoodReader allows annotation and that's just as effective as a post-it note.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Neither. They're probably PDF.

I was joking.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

I think it is going to be a pain in the ass to find a specific page in an emergency.

Delta is doing the same thing, but is looking at tablets other than the iPad.

Gigaom:

Each iPad will be loaded with navigation and terminal chart apps from Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck.

All told that’s 12,000 sheets of paper per pilot that United will no longer be ordering, the airline says.

[RockdaMan]

FAA guidelines:

The iPad was OK for reference, but not as a pilot’s sole source of information. The new FAA authorization changes all that.

To receive FAA authorization, Jeppesen and Executive Jet Management went through a rigorous approval process. It included rapid-decompression testing from a simulated altitude of 51,000 feet and ensuring the tablet will not interfere with critical navigation or electronic equipment.

Executive Jet tested the iPad and Mobile TC in 10 aircraft flown by 55 pilots during 250 flights.

The first thought many pilots, not to mention passengers, will have is: What happens if the iPad or the app crashes?

Jeff Buhl, Jeppesen’s product manager for the Mobile TC app, says the Apple iOS operating system and the app proved “extremely stable” during testing. In the “unlikely” event of a software crash, he says, it takes but a moment to get them running again.

“The recovery time for an application crashing or the OS crashing is extremely rapid,” Buhl says. During the evaluation period with the FAA, the production app did not crash. But even if it did, Buhl says it’s ready to go again “in 4-6 seconds from re-launch to previous state.”

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/02/faa-ipad/

[DiapDealer]

38 pounds of paper that gets referred to very little in normal commercial flights. The pilots were just looking for justification to get free iPads.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

This is cool. But it doesn't tell us whether they are ePub or Mobi.

http://www.chron.com/business/articl...he-2137183.php

But will they turn them completely off below 10,000 feet altitude?

[WillAdams]

What are they doing to ensure that the display is legible in bright sunlight?

[HappyMartin]

A local South African airline last month issued all it's pilots with iPads to replace the bulky case of documents they normally carry. Seems like a no brainer to me.

In an emergency pilots don't usually have manuals spread around as they feverishly look for a solution to the problem. Don't think that will be an issue

[tubemonkey]

Ummm... why don't planes already have a built-in PC with display terminals for each member of the flight deck?